The Eternal Enigma of Afterlife

This is my 1st blog as most of us and hence if it doesn't meet your quality or standards, my sincere apologies. The idea of blogging struck me few days back when I was lost in my thoughts gazing through bright blue sky from my big-size window. Although I keep reminding myself how Tiny I am on this planet earth compared to this colossal universe, most of the times I keep forgetting about this when dealing with my everyday interactions. So I decided why not have some of my thoughts documented somewhere, so it would be beneficial to not just me, but may be others who could relate themselves strongly to these thoughts and emotions. So the topic I want to discuss today is about "Death".

Have you ever thought, what happens when someone dies? This is such an intriguing question that I keep wondering - In this Digital age with so much of information available to us in all ways, why hasn't someone documented this stuff about Life experiences after death. Even if someone did, how do we trust it, what is the source or how can one self experience it without actually "Dying". I feel this is strongly related to the concept of how our ancestors from Sanatan Dharma had knowledge about Universe, planets, distances between Moon, Sun and earth etc. They did not have to physical visit these places nor did they have any reading materials available to them during that time. Here I would like to quote one of the best Sanskrit shloka - यत् पिण्डे तत् ब्रह्माण्डे (yat pinde tat brahmande). To interpret it in simple English language - it translates to "All that is outside you is within you". Another way of saying it would be Your body is a miniature universe. We have also heard the story of Lord Krishna when he was a child and his mother Yashoda asked him to open his mouth as Krishna's friends complained to Yashoda that he was eating dirt. As Krishna could not disregard his Mom's request, he opened his mouth and Yashoda was awestruck. She saw within his mouth the overwhelming vastness of the universe.

I am referring to all this knowledge because I am of a strong opinion that there is "Life After Death". Our journey doesn't simply end when we give up on this body. And in all of the major religions, it is strongly believed that soul exists. Isn't it an irony that people are divided based on the religions, yet all religions say one thing - Demise of the physical form doesn't mean that one's journey has ended. Just because we haven't experienced it ourselves, for obvious reasons, it doesn't imply that it doesn't exists. In Bhagvad Gita (A Hindu Scripture), it is mentioned that Soul has no birth or death. Soul is eternal, unborn and ever-existing. Just like we change our clothes everyday, Soul also changes from one body to another. The only difference is that we don't remember our past. Just like we don't remember each and every moment of our childhood. Imagine, if we become aware of our past lifetimes, we would see some drastic changes in the way we conduct ourselves in present life. It is believed that only when we become aware of death, we start living our lives. But majority of us have taken death for granted. None of us ever believes that it will be our turn, which is understandable. However, not being fully aware of this phenomenon will only make it worse when it is our time to leave this physical body. Remember, this is your own journey. No one will accompany you, you don't have any manual or instructions, no one to officially take care of you (When you are born, your parents are there to look after you). It is just you and the universe.

We don't know where does our soul go when it leaves the body. Does it really merge with the universe. How does it chooses the next body. How sure can we be that our next life will be that of human life and not of any other living creature. And the most important question of all - Should we be really worried about this now?